Video Game Developers – Part 4

Video Game Developers – Part 4

Welcome to the 4th and final installment of our series that looks at the best video game developers, their stories and their most-loved games. Reader so far will see that we have taken a closer look at Activision, Electronic Arts, Guerrilla Games amongst others. These video game producers make the best games on the planet and sell literally millions of copies each and every year. It is little surprise that the world of online gaming is moving at such an amazing pace.

Infinity Ward

This American game producer are best known for coming up with the original title “Call of Duty” and the 6 other installments in the game series. In the early days Infinity Ward were partially funded by Activision to the tune of around a 30 percent stake. Their very first outing was released on PC in Dec 2013. The very next day after the Word War 2 shooter went live, Activision stepped in to buy up the remainder of the company. In the process the locked key employees into long term contracts. The heart of the success enjoyed by the Call of Duty series is that it continually evolves. The game engine itself is constantly updated to ensure it can cope with the rigors of online gaming, while delivering at an impressive minimum of 60 Fps.

Nintendo

While the Nintendo company dates back to 1889 as a playing card company, we will focus on the electronic entertainment side of their business in this blog. The Japanese powerhouse started to produce its own gaming consoles in 1977, the Colour TV-Game console represented its first foray into the video game market place. 1975 was the year that Nintendo produced the first video arcade game, titled EVR Race. While it enjoyed success, this was nothing compared to the massive Donkey Kong game that really catapulted the software house’s fortunes in 1991. The success of Donkey Kong brought about a wealth of licensing opportunities, including ports onto other games consoles. It was this game that also brought about an early iteration of Mario, which at the time was known as Jumpman in Japan.

Other games successes followed, with versions of Donkey Kong and the unbelievable popular Mario Brothers game series. Other notably releases under the Nintendo games banner include:

The Legend of Zelda

Pokémon

Star Fox

Super Smash Bros

A fierce competitor to Sony in the games console market, Nintendo shows no sign of relenting in its desire to be number one.

Microsoft Studios

Another massive software developer that also produces hardware comes in the form of Microsoft Studios. Microsoft have been at the forefront of games design for quite some time, with a plethora of top titles released, including:

Halo

Gears of War series

Age of Empires

Forza Motorsport series

Crackdown series

Game review site http://www.metacritic.com nearly always have good things to say when it comes to Microsoft games releases. The much-heralded review site takes a look at game play quality from a number of factors and publishes information on its website. Microsoft has a number of subsidiary arms around the world, helping them to focus on the quality of certain specific areas. These include:

343 Industries, responsible for the production of the Halo series

Microsoft Casual Games Team, responsible for Mahjong, Solitaire, Minesweeper and a mix of other PC based games

Turn 10 Studios, responsible for the Forza series of motorsports games

Lift London, responsible for creating future gaming advances

Rare, responsible for the Banjo Kazooie series of games, plus Elements of Fire and Sea of Thieves

Mojang, responsible for the Minecraft series

The Coalition, responsible for the Gears of War series of games

That brings about the end of our 4th and final part, where we have looked at some of the leading video games developers, producers and of course their most-loved games.